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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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As with most things nowadays, it's all about THE MONEY. I go to the doctor with raging poison oak, they push a whooping cough and tetanus vaccine on me. Of course, I told them to fuck off on their vaccines, but that's how it works. I could give a fuck if I get whooping cough and am not about to get shot up to avoid it.
Meanwhile, real diseases that cause real harm if tough to diagnose or not profitable for these doctors go untreated. They treat the depression from lyme disease with antidepressants or treat whatever other symptom comes up. They only can mitigate symptoms and then very poorly.
Next year it appears there will be no medical insurance for "Obamacare" in my county. We shall see. Don't make money or they will penalize you on health insurance what an oxymoron that is.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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My doctor doesn't charge me anything. And he's a REAL good doctor. Kind of naturopath they come for from across every border my country has.
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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JacksonMetaller
Stranger

Registered: 03/13/11
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Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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It's funny you say that Lunar. When i went in with my CIDP the first thing they tried to do was push antidepressants on me. They ran some very basic autoimmune tests and neglected to check for CIDP which is like the most common autoimmune neuropathy. That happened twice just between the neurologists. Not to mention they didn't spend a second considering underlying cause. Just straight to cymbalta. I only got diagnosed because i paid a gastroenterologist out of pocket who just happened to be familiar with the condition because of her celiac patients. Maddening. It is pretty embarassing when you look at how these pharmaceuticals work versus what these diseases actually entail. And here i am after being a "mystery" case that can "only be managed" taking cats claw and knotweed by buhner's recommendation and i've noticed i've had no pain today. Zero. The battles far from over but this is the best i've felt in 3 years and i didn't take one goddamned drug.
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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What does CIPD stand for? It's not the rare neurological condition where the myelin sheaths are destroyed is it?
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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Quote:
JacksonMetaller said: It's funny you say that Lunar. When i went in with my CIDP the first thing they tried to do was push antidepressants on me. They ran some very basic autoimmune tests and neglected to check for CIDP which is like the most common autoimmune neuropathy. That happened twice just between the neurologists. Not to mention they didn't spend a second considering underlying cause. Just straight to cymbalta. I only got diagnosed because i paid a gastroenterologist out of pocket who just happened to be familiar with the condition because of her celiac patients. Maddening. It is pretty embarassing when you look at how these pharmaceuticals work versus what these diseases actually entail. And here i am after being a "mystery" case that can "only be managed" taking cats claw and knotweed by buhner's recommendation and i've noticed i've had no pain today. Zero. The battles far from over but this is the best i've felt in 3 years and i didn't take one goddamned drug.
Pysch drugs are big ongoing $$. Not so much for antibiotics.
I've been "around the block" a few times, and see how the medical "profession" works. They tried to kill my mom with Fentanyl, then tried to kill my dad with some wacky insulin pump. These doctors are mostly incompetent and with huge egos.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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Thayendanegea
quiet walker



Registered: 02/20/12
Posts: 7,596
Loc: 7 Lodges Nation
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It's good to see Jackson and Natureboy on here as well as some of the others that have chimed in. I have immense respect for the knowledge that is here to be gained.
I have RA and have had it for 9 years now. This is a autoimmune disease that is similar in symptoms to Lyme. I get tested for Lyme by my rheumatologist once a year because of all the time I spend in the woods but have not tested positive yet. Without going into a lot of details, I have found that both reishi and chaga extracts work well to keep the disease in remission. I make my own extracts using Forresters tek with the mushrooms I find. I've been taking as much as a couple teaspoons of double extract of each 3 x per day for 3 yrs. now and have not had to go back on the methotrexate or any of the biologics that were making me sick in the beginning. As luck would have it...a little more than coincidence, I think, I just stumbled on a motherlode of reishi...if anyone would like some...I'd be happy to send it to you no charge, of course. This stuff really does work, I just think that you have to take pretty high doses of it, comparatively. Anyway, just shoot me a pm with address if you'd like some (already cut up and dried).
-------------------- Look Deep Into Nature,and Then You Will Understand Everything Better. Albert Einstein
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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Dried with heat I hope? Made the stupid mistake of drying at room temps with a nice maitake last fall, beginning of spring I opened the jar bc I saw some dust in it, turned out the dust was itty bitty critters
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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CookieCrumbs
Fucked off to the pub


Registered: 12/10/11
Posts: 14,146
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How do you take those shrooms? do you eat them? do you tea them?
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Free time is the only time
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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Either stews, soups, or medicinal extracts. Extracts in pill or capsule form are often better than the ones in tincture form. Home made stews and soups are very medicinal as well, but not all medicinal mushrooms are easily obtainable in whole form. Of course, you could add mushroom powder to a mushroom stew, which should also work fine.
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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JacksonMetaller
Stranger

Registered: 03/13/11
Posts: 13,361
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Quote:
LizardWizard said: What does CIPD stand for? It's not the rare neurological condition where the myelin sheaths are destroyed is it?
Precisely that. I'm oversimplifying though. I have small fiber neuropathy and small fiber nerves are not myelinated. But the condition does tend to present with the same sort of auto-antibodies (anti-gangliosides) present in CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy). I don't think the connection to CIDP is totally understood. A bacteria like Borrelia will put up proteins or sugars on it's membrane that resemble the tissues they infect and as a byproduct generate autoantibodies. It could be that the gangliosides are just correlative in my case. I don't think CIDP is rare though. I think my experience is instructive that many cases of CIDP and autoimmune neurological disorders probably go undiagnosed as "idiopathic" neuropathy. My guess lies in the fact that treatment is $6000 infusions of IVIG once every 1-3 weeks. Hence why it's not tested for on a routine autoimmune panel covered by insurance. Cymbalta is cheaper. I asked one of my neurologists if she checked for it and she was like "no but that could be it" 
Quote:
Thayendanegea said: It's good to see Jackson and Natureboy on here as well as some of the others that have chimed in. I have immense respect for the knowledge that is here to be gained.
I have RA and have had it for 9 years now. This is a autoimmune disease that is similar in symptoms to Lyme. I get tested for Lyme by my rheumatologist once a year because of all the time I spend in the woods but have not tested positive yet. Without going into a lot of details, I have found that both reishi and chaga extracts work well to keep the disease in remission. I make my own extracts using Forresters tek with the mushrooms I find. I've been taking as much as a couple teaspoons of double extract of each 3 x per day for 3 yrs. now and have not had to go back on the methotrexate or any of the biologics that were making me sick in the beginning. As luck would have it...a little more than coincidence, I think, I just stumbled on a motherlode of reishi...if anyone would like some...I'd be happy to send it to you no charge, of course. This stuff really does work, I just think that you have to take pretty high doses of it, comparatively. Anyway, just shoot me a pm with address if you'd like some (already cut up and dried). 
Honestly i'd put all my money that the underlying cause of RA isn't far off from Lyme. Glad you're finding something that helps though. I've actually been messing with various herbs for over a year and the problem is that they worked too well I don't know how it is with RA, but with late stage Lyme the herxheimers are ridiculous. It took me a year just to figure out how low of a dose i needed. Now that i've got that figured out i've been steadily progressing for months. Totally sold on plant medicines. I mean... wow. I'd rather take any of these than Humira or some nasty drug like that
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,808
Loc: Canada
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I would just like to chime in regarding medicinal mushrooms. My mom was pretty intolerant of the chitin in ganodermas and even well cooked shiitake gave her stomach issues. But she had no issues with tincture and so I make tincture with g lucidum, g neo-japonicum, Hericium, shiitake, and a little cubensis. Makes for a great boost everyday, just a dropper full in the coffee every morning.
Most of the species I use need an ethanol and water extraction to get the most of what they have to offer (cubes of course are the exception lol). If you grow the mushrooms yourself it's a far cheaper alternative to the outrageous prices for these mushrooms in health food stores etc.
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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Re: The Lyme Disease Thread. [Re: Pastywhyte]
#24440175 - 06/27/17 05:52 PM (6 years, 6 months ago) |
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It is absolutely way more cheap to grow them yourself! Of course, that takes time. I'm growing my own hericium for starters, and I think I have a Reishi culture coming in, as well as some pioppino's, also medicinally active!
Didn't know about the chitin being able to cause much gastrointestinal issues. The kuzu-umeboshi could help with that as well if anyone has these issues. It takes some getting used too, the umeboshi, but it can do wonders for the body. It's also good for detoxing and headaches. Activated charcoal also often works wonders with headaches BTW.
My dad has CIPD, that's why I asked. I'm growing the Hericium for him as well. Also thinking of putting some cubensis in there, but I'll have to make it just the smallest amount, as he doesn't feel like tripping AT ALL.
I'm still looking for an Agaricus Blazei Murill culture if anyone has it?
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,808
Loc: Canada
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Oh if my mom knew there was cubes she would freak. It's just the smallest amount. Could never feel it. Time is a factor especially with the super slow fruiting ganoderma's, but grow a few mini monos and you have plenty for a year.
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Thayendanegea
quiet walker



Registered: 02/20/12
Posts: 7,596
Loc: 7 Lodges Nation
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Quote:
CookieCrumbs said: How do you take those shrooms? do you eat them? do you tea them?
I make extracts...forresters tek to be exact(just a very basic double extract)both reishi and chaga can also be shredded to make teas...the reishi tastes nasty but the chaga is really rather decent...actually has a tiny bit of vanilla taste to it.
The thing for me was to take it vigilantly...keep it in your system....two droppers full of extract of each 3 x per day....sometimes as much as a couple teaspoons full if I feel a flare coming on. I think people don't use these amounts because, if you buy the stuff on the internet, you'd go broke....it is very easy for me to make and only requires the patience of searching and finding them in the wild and the cost of the everclear used in the extraction.
-------------------- Look Deep Into Nature,and Then You Will Understand Everything Better. Albert Einstein
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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For me, Chaga does not taste good. I can harvest it in the wild, and have before, but I'm having trouble stomaching the extracts. It's just the taste. Tried it in coffee, still awful, but manageable. But it ruined my morning coffee moment, so I quit using it. Anyone have a clue on how to take it otherwise? I've read that dried extracts of chaga don't dissolve anymore, unless dried under vacuum I think, and even then it only dissolves in acids (stomach acid for instance).
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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Thayendanegea
quiet walker



Registered: 02/20/12
Posts: 7,596
Loc: 7 Lodges Nation
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use the same double extract for chaga as I do reishi. (forresters tek)
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18845747
-------------------- Look Deep Into Nature,and Then You Will Understand Everything Better. Albert Einstein
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
Loc: the parking lot
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Quote:
c10h12n2o said: all you cat people need to research the brain parasite toxoplasma gondii 
i dont believe in free will, so i found it less troubling than some may, but it affects up to 90% of some countries. very common here in the states among cat lovers
crazy thing is that researchers can tell you have it from the way you dress and present yourself!
Quote:
Science Sushi Toxoplasma's Dark Side: The Link Between Parasite and Suicide By Christie Wilcox on July 4, 2012
ADVERTISEMENT | REPORT AD We human beings are very attached to our brains. We're proud of them - of their size and their complexity. We think our brains set us apart, make us special. We scare our children with tales of monsters that eat them, and obsessively study how they work, even when these efforts are often fruitless. So, of course, we are downright offended that a simple, single-celled organism can manipulate our favorite organ, influencing the way we think and act. Toxoplasma gondii is arguably the most interesting parasite on the planet. In the guts of cats, this single-celled protozoan lives and breeds, producing egg-like cells which pass with the cats bowel movements. These find their way into other animals that come in contact with cat crap. Once in this new host, the parasite changes and migrates, eventually settling as cysts in various tissues including the host's brain, where the real fun begins. Toxoplasma can only continue its life cycle and end up a happy adult in a cat's gut if it can find its way into a cat's gut, and the fastest way to a cat's gut, of course, is to be eaten by a cat. Incredibly, the parasite has evolved to help ensure that this occurs. For example, Toxoplasma infection alters rat behavior with surgical precision, making them lose their fear of (and even become sexually aroused by!) the smell of cats by hijacking neurochemical pathways in the rat's brain. Of course, rats aren't the only animals that Toxoplasma ends up in. Around 1/3 of people on Earth carry these parasites in their heads. Since Toxoplasma has no trouble affecting rats, whose brains are similar in many ways to our own, scientists wonder how much the parasite affects the big, complex brains we love so much. For over a decade, researchers have investigated how this single-celled creature affects the way we think, finding that indeed, Toxoplasma alters our behavior and may even play a role in cultural differences beween nations. The idea that this tiny protozoan parasite can influence our minds is old news. Some of the greatest science writers of our time have waxed poetic about how it sneaks its way into our brains and affects our personalities. Overall, though, the side effects of infection are thought to be minor and relatively harmless. Recently, however, evidence has been mounting that suggests the psychological consequences of infection are much darker than we once thought. In 2003, E. Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland his colleagues noted a link between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia – specifically, that women with high levels of the parasite were more likely to give birth to schizophrenics-to-be. The hypothesis given for this phenomenon is that while for most people who are infected, Toxoplasma has minor effects, for some, the changes are much more pronounced. The idea has gained traction - a later paper found, for example, that anti-psychotics worked just as well as parasite-killing drugs in restoring normal behaviors in infected rats, affirming the similarities between psychological disorders and Toxoplasma infection. Continuing to work with mental patients, scientists later discovered a link between suicide and parasite infection. But, of course, this link was in people who already have mental illness. Similarly, a study found that countries with high Toxoplasma infection rates also had high suicide rates - but the connection between the two was weak, and there was no direct evidence that the women who committed suicide were infected. What scientists really wanted to understand is whether Toxoplasma affects people with no prior disposition to psychological problems. They were in luck: in Denmark, serum antibody levels for Toxoplasma gondii were taken from the children of over 45,000 women as a part of a neonatal screening study to better understand how the parasite is transmitted from mother to child. Since children do not form their own antibodies until three months after birth, the antibody levels reflect the mother's immune response. Thus the scientists were both able to passively screen women not only for infection status, but degree of infection, as high levels of antibodies are indicative of worse infections. They were then able to use the Danish Cause of Death Register, the Danish National Hospital Register and the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register to investigate the correlation between infection and self-directed violence, including suicide. The results were clear. Women with Toxoplasma infections were 54% more likely to attempt suicide - and twice as likely to succeed. In particular, these women were more likely to attempt violent suicides (using a knife or gun, for example, instead of overdosing on pills). But even more disturbing: suicide attempt risk was positively correlated with the level of infection. Those with the highest levels of antibodies were 91% more likely to attempt suicide than uninfected women. The connection between parasite and suicide held even for women who had no history of mental illness: among them, infected women were 56% more likely to commit self-directed violence. While these results might seem frightening, they make sense when you think about how Toxoplasma is known to affect our personalities. In 2006, researchers linked Toxoplasma infection to neuroticism in both men and women. Neuroticism - as defined by psychology - is the "an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states," including depression, guilt and insecurity. The link between neuroticism and suicide is well established, thus if the parasite does make people more neurotic, it's not surprising that it influences rates of self-violence. How does a parasite affect how we think? The authors suggest that our immune system may actually be to blame. When we are infected with a parasite like Toxoplasma gondii, our immune system goes on the offensive, producing a group of molecules called cytokines that activate various immune cell types. The trouble is, recent research has connected high levels of cytokines to depression and violent suicide attempts. The exact mechanism by which cytokines cause depression and other mental illnesses is poorly understood, but we do know they are able to pass the blood-brain barrier and alter neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine in the brain. But the authors caution that even with the evidence, correlation is not causation. "Is the suicide attempt a direct effect of the parasite on the function of the brain or an exaggerated immune response induced by the parasite affecting the brain? We do not know," said Teodor T. Postolache, the senior author and an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in a press release. "We can't say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves." "In fact, we have not excluded reverse causality as there might be risk factors for suicidal behavior that also make people more susceptible to infection with T. gondii," Postolache explained. But given the strong link between the two, there is real potential for therapeutic intervention. "If we can identify a causal relationship, we may be able to predict those at increased risk for attempting suicide and find ways to intervene and offer treatment." The next step will be for scientists to affirm if and how these parasites cause negative thoughts. Not only could such research help target at-risk individuals, it may help scientists understand the dark neurological pathways that lead to depression and suicide that the sinister protozoan has tapped into. But even more disconcerting is that scientists predict that Toxoplasma prevalence is on the rise, both due to how we live and climate change. The increase and spread of this parasitic puppeteer cannot be good for the mental health of generations to come.
Citation: Pedersen, M.G., Mortensen, P.B., Norgaard-Pedersen, B. & Postolache, T.T. Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Self-directed Violence in Mothers, Archives of General Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.668 Photos: Toxoplasma gondii parasites in rat ascitic fluid from the CDC's Public Health Image Library; Brain MRI Scan in Patient with Toxoplasma Encephalitis from the University of Washington's HIV Web Study The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Toxoplasmosis is also a pretty common problem with ppl who have lyme disease. This might be due to the fact that the Borrelia has an activating action on other pathogens, using them to systematically weaken the body to spread itself easier.
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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JacksonMetaller
Stranger

Registered: 03/13/11
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It's interesting that toxo is generally considered benign. It'll be great when they throw out these binary view of pathogens
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LizardWizard
GnomeGrower




Registered: 01/07/15
Posts: 13,688
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It's all in the amounts... Point is, as long as you don't make you body and immune system strong enough to keep it all at bay, you're fucked. Healthy balance... 
I consider LD a blessing sometimes, cause I get to experience all the fucked up shit you get when getting older, only I get to experience and solve it now, so I'll know what to do when I get older as well
-------------------- The best things in life can be smelled on one's fingers.
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JacksonMetaller
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Registered: 03/13/11
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Haha i feel that way too. And now i have a healthy interest besides just eating drugs all the time.
I wish i could say its all in the amounts but its in virulence too. Some things are beyond your control. One of the concepts i've been playing with is in infectious disease as Gaian response to population growth. Paul Ewalds has written some really cool stuff on how transmission strategies effect virulence in a population. Basically that benign and virulent malaria for example can be found in the same population, but the virulent one will always be selected when mosquito bites are frequent enough that it can spread and still kill its host. Where as sexual diseases tend to have very long latency stages in populations where partner swapping is infrequent. Lyme disease would sort of fall in the middle. Less common than mosquito bites but rapidly spreading. As such less fatal than many mosquito illnesses, but much more debilitating than syphilis tends to be. It's an interesting theory imo and worth looking into if you're into that kind of thing. If it's right then it means the epidemic of Lyme will not just get worse in incidence but also in consequence
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